Anne’s room was spacious with jade green walls and gray vinyl wood floors. She had one frame with encased arrowheads, but otherwise her walls were barren. The ceiling was slant and there were two windows with beige curtains. The trim on the windows and on the door was old, scuffed, and beaten. Half of it was stained a dark brown and the other half was an Americana brown. Anne had left a crowbar, a...
Charity beat her pen on her lips and furrowed her golden brows at Ezekiel. Ezekiel couldn’t imagine what was wrong with her and so he smiled pitifully at Charity as if she were some poor, dumb child who had never been taught the difference between a coral snake and a king snake. He fixed the collar of his white button-up shirt and ran his fingers through his raven black hair. Then he picked up an ...
One eve’ning silent as the sea,
My father sang the song
Of Hiawatha,
To the swelling rhythm
of the Gryllidae;
At a point— I do declare—
So fleeting as the Gryllidae;
When all was quiet
In the poor man’s way;
Then I played on mossy
Sodden logs;
Garb in faded carrhartt;
thin and boney
As the leafless birch;
So I ran shoeless and singing;
Shouting in the graces of the sun
The song of Hiawatha...
Over by the livery;
When be I wasn’t supposed,
I left my home and went on
To meet my girl at Hickory;
(An oak we named amid ourselves,
Branded for our keeping;)
Yonder where the mountains breathe;
I traversed with huffing eyes,
Where caverns’ wrathful answer loud,
To men with flames on their heads
Who rouse contention in the rocks;
And falter ‘neath the staggering,
Sodden, crashing lowly caves;
‘...
What value has the amethyst,
If every stone is rare?
What value has a vein of gold,
If every vein is near?
What value has the morning,
If night was never lord?
What is food to well-fed men?
What is peace to peaceful nations?
And what is Eden worth to man,
If we’d never known depravity?...
And where do I go,
So lowly and soft,
To cabins abroad,
Where history fell;
And how will I know,
That you have not gone,
When you are not here,
To cradle my thoughts?
By moonshiners’ still,
And hollers n’ broke,
The willows shall weep,
For my gone, done love
When he cannot go,
to the long left road;
Where lingered there, I,
‘Til present drove ‘way....
It was strange. The words came to me as clearly as if my father said them; and I could hear not only his voice, but also the swelling of the crickets, and the shifting of leaves. It was a bright day. The mountain laurel was in bloom, and its’ sweet smell permeated the air. The birds sang at our old, sodden, dilapidated house in the mountains, where my father sang as well; on that lovely day.
And t...
Chattering floors,
Scuffed like copper,
Where shoes collide
To move as one
Flowing dresses,
On their hands, lie
Diamond secrets,
With long faces,
Moving below
Banquets set with
Ruby sherries,
Amber glasses,
Garnish desserts,
Fatted meat, there,
Off far tables,
Where melting eyes
Shine like rivers,
Masquerading,
As they smile
In the dimly
Litted rumours
Of the poor man’s
Ideations...
